We’re in the book of Genesis. We’re in the last portion of the story of Joseph. There has been a lot going on in this story. Joseph, who had been separated from his father and his family for many years through the betrayal of his brothers, now has been reunited. Amazing things have happened! We find ourselves here at the end of the book with his father, Jacob, on his death bed. There are two gatherings that take place in chapters 48 and 49 that we’ll see if we can touch on some in the message. But we’ll read now in chapter 50. After they have had these gatherings and a few conversations with their father, Jacob breathes his last in chapter 49. He draws his feet up into his bed and he is gathered to his people. We’ll start in chapter 50.
1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’” 6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.” 7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan. 12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, 13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph’s own. 24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
The worst three words ever inserted into a story combine together to make up this haunting phrase: to be continued. There were few phrases that can just provoke a deeper collective groan from our childhood family room couch than that. We’d be sitting there on the edge of the cushions, tense with anticipation, then there is that cruel, unthinkable taunt: to be continued… There would always be some sort of semi-resolution, but true release was just out of reach. There were those burning questions that were still unanswered. Beloved characters fates were yet uncertain. They would build some tension and let it release. Then they would reveal new tension and then just sit on it.
It’s not a hard formula to figure out because we all want to know how things end. It’s human to long for the fitting syllable that ends the rhyme. It’s natural to crave that keynote consonant that resolves the song. It’s in our being to yearn for clear conclusions to the end of the story. It’s not that we always get those resolutions, though. There are plenty of companies that make a living off of cliffhanger after cliffhanger with no true direction in mind. They just doom their devoted fans to perpetually unresolved tension. Worse than that, some might claim, are the tv series that get canceled before their story line comes to a close. But nothing compares to the moment when you discover that your own life contains areas of tension for which this world will offer no such thing as complete closure.
There is no more ultimate origin story than Genesis. It’s the history not just of humanity, but of creation. What began well because of a good God became corrupted by sin and death. Thus man who was taken from the dust would to that very same dust return. Dust was doomed to be eaten by this evil serpent who tempted them to disobey God. God had given this righteous curse and unleashed judgment, but in that, He also had made a promise. It was a promise that through the woman, there would be this Child. There would be a Seed who would conquer the serpent at great cost. It’s a promise that continued from generation to generation until it found a specific home in the family of Abraham. It was a promise trusted by his son, Isaac and his grandson, Jacob. It was a promise that had been revealed and expanded into this guaranteed land and descendants and blessing.
It was a beautiful message in this broken world, but it was marred by this glaring issue that despite the constant promise of God, the problem of death due to sin remained unresolved. Each generation, including the family of Abraham, meet their end without God’s vow completely coming to fulfillment. As they are awaiting this land and awaiting the descendants, they die. We come to the end of this book and discover ourselves at two deathbed gatherings, the final site really being the close of a coffin. The ending has some satisfying narrative elements, but full closure is ultimately withheld.
It’s not hard to agree that one of the more difficult things in life to deal with are the painful situations that don’t get resolved. There are friends that don’t call back. There are messages that go unread. There are apologies that are never made. There are resentments that are not released. There are secrets that are unconfessed. There are ambitions that are unrealized. There are disappointments that are not acknowledged. There are children that don’t return home. There are gatherings that never occur. There are relationships that are unreconciled. There are dreams that are unfulfilled. There will be situations in life when we discover earthly resolutions, the ones for which we so desperately long, there may be throughout our entire lifetime this aching thirst that goes entirely unquenched. Ours is a world that in many ways never provides the full and complete closure we desire.
What do you do with that? In this world, when we don’t have closure and when things aren’t resolved, where and how can we ever find and know true peace? How do you release the tension or learn in some way to live with it? Whatever the problem is that is pressing on your mind, keeping you up at night, the unresolved issue that is on your heart right now where resolution is out of reach, when full closure on that is really a dream that can’t be fulfilled today and may never be, is there a way to find and know true peace? How do you do that? The answer is through faith, trust, belief.
In this world, without full closure, it is the only way true peace can ever be found and known. It’s through faith in a God that is in control. It’s through faith in a God that has a plan. It’s through faith in a God that will do what He said. It’s trusting and believing the promise is as good as kept and that God is working it all out. Even in your very last breath, it’s trusting that this life is not the end. What does that look like? How do you do faith in this chaos, when the problems are present, the tension is unresolved? Even now, we’re sitting here, but we have things that we’re going to go to after the service. How do you exercise faith that really helps you to grab hold of the blessing of peace not at the end of the conflict, but in its very midst? There are many ways, to be sure, but today we’ll try to look at just four. We’ll look at four ways that we can experience the blessing of faith even as our longing for closure goes unfulfilled. We’ll look at a glimpse we can appreciate, a grief we can express, a goodness we can trust, and a guarantee we can claim.
1. A Glimpse We Can Appreciate
This is a glimpse ahead at what is to come. In this glimpse, I’m talking about chapters 48 and 49. This is a glimpse looking ahead. You see two chapters that we’re not going to spend too much time on because they could be an entire sermon in themselves. They contain the prophecies for things to come for Jacob’s descendants. They are profound prophecies about the future that find fulfillment in actual history and in the pages of Scripture. There is too much to unpack, but we’ll touch on a few to help us to appreciate that even in this world where faith is required, our faith is not, in one sense, completely blind. God gives us glimpses into what’s ahead. And for us as we look back and we see from our own perspective, God gives us glimpses that were in many ways, fulfilled. They help us remember that the glimpses that we’re given and what’s ahead will also be fulfilled. God doesn’t leave His people entirely in the dark. He gives us a glimpse often to appreciate, and that strengthens our faith in the future promises yet to be fulfilled.
A glimpse is a momentary, partial view. It’s a hint, a snapshot, a whisper, a preview. It takes a certain kind of skill to make a movie trailer or preview that maximizes anticipation and prepares audiences for what is to come without giving away the entire story. Just a few days ago, my wife and I were deciding whether or not we were going to watch a movie. We watched the trailer and by the end of the trailer, we decided that we saw the movie. (Laughter!) But a good trailer, when it’s well done, it sort of introduces you to a few themes. Just like we talked about last week, maybe there are a few musical themes that accompany different characters and you start to realize what is about to unfold in this story and the tension. That’s what we’re given here. We’re given some themes of the different characters that if you really understand how the themes of this prophecy work out, you will see God at work through the entire Old Testament and even beyond.
Jacob is coming to the end of his life. There are two gatherings that we’re looking at that span these two chapters. In chapter 48, there is this first gathering where he is with Joseph and Joseph’s two sons. Then the second gathering in chapter 49 is him gathering with all of his twelve sons. In these gatherings, he gives blessings and looks forward to the future. These are blessings that are not sort of the random rantings of a man on his deathbed, but they are faith-filled prophecies inspired by God. We can confirm that through the writer in
Hebrews 11:21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
This was done in faith, bringing blessing which is to bestow or wish life and goodness upon someone. It’s not something that can be taken. It must be given. It is given by someone who is greater. So here, Jacob blesses his sons and his grandsons. You can see the blessing if you look in chapter 48. We’ll just walk through it for a brief moment because it helps set the stage for the emotion of chapter 50.
1 After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
These are the two sons that were born to him in Egypt.
2 And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.”
The narrative slows down to really help us to slow down in this moment.
Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.
You can feel the slowness of the moment. He sits up and context is given to us through Jacob where he says to Joseph what is on his mind. Here he is on his deathbed. He’s getting sick. What is on his mind?
3 And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me,
He thinks about blessing. It’s the end of his life and he is realizing and thinks back to his own father. His own father was getting older and Jacob had gone and stolen the blessing from his brother. Here he is and that’s rolling through his mind about how God had spoken to him and how the blessing that he had sought to steal he had actually received from God in a unique way when God spoke to him.
4 and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’
“I got a big promise from God.” That’s the context. So then he sets a purpose, here. He speaks to Joseph.
5 And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.
There is a sense of adoption here, where he is able to say, “We lost out on something in life, but what I’m going to do is your two sons are mine just like Reuben and Simeon are mine.”
6 And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
“These two are now mine and they’re going to be part of this inheritance.” You can tell that this man is thinking about his life. He references in verse 7 as he thinks about his son and he sees these grandsons, he thinks about his wife, Rachel, that he lost and how he had buried her.
7 As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
His thoughts are on death and he is very tender in his heart.
8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” 9 Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.” 10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
It’s this moment that we’re really drawn in and understanding what is happening.
11 And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.”
It’s almost like he is just overwhelmed with “I didn’t even think you were alive and now here I am, holding your kids.”
12 Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
They’re having this moment before God that God is almost kind of protecting and sanctifying. There is this family moment and the blessing comes forth.
13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him.
He puts the older brother toward the right hand to get the primary blessing. So they’re in position.
14 And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn). 15 And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
He had forgotten at moments and strayed. He knew what it was to be a shepherd. He knew what it was to have sheep. He had taken care of sheep and his Uncle Laban’s sheep. He had been with sheep a long time and now he recognizes, “I thought I was the one working all this out, but I realize I’ve been a sheep and He has been my shepherd all the time.”
16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
This is one who had wrestled God and claimed a blessing. He realizes, “He is the one who has been protecting me. In fact, this God, the God of Abraham who made the promise, I call on Him.”
bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
There is a blessing that he bestows on them. But there is this interesting dilemma.
17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 And Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.”
Joseph is second-in-command in Egypt. He’s a big guy in charge of all these things, but he is brought back to the position of a son.
19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”
Jacob is being guided by God. He understands there is something transcendent in the moment that goes beyond human expectations. It’s something that he himself had experienced. You can look back and see it with Seth and Cain, the younger rising. You can see it with Isaac and Ishmael and with Jacob and his brother, Esau. He understands that God works in unexpected ways sometimes. He senses now that this is how God will work. The truth is that the younger will be greater.
20 So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying,
‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’”
That’s the ultimate blessing!
Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
Then at the end, Jacob, who had been deprived of gifting his beloved son for so much throughout most of his life after the young years, he offers him this last precious gift.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. 22 Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”
He has some tough times in his life, but you can see his connection with his son. “I love you and here is one thing I can give you.” This is important context that we need to have as we come to the second gathering. So here is this deathbed moment where Joseph is having a special moment with his sons and two sons are adopted in. Now we go to chapter 49.
1 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.
So all of his sons gather together and listen to him. We don’t have time to make it through all that is found here. There is a little book, if you’re interested, called Jacob’s Dozen. It was written by one of my professors that I had. It walks through the prophecy in more detail. So a lot of what I’ll reference in brief here is really just taken right from that book.
By faith, there is a sense in which God grants Jacob the opportunity to see what is going to happen. Blessings and prophecies are going to unfold and be fulfilled over the course of not just their lifetime, but for hundreds of years. You can see them especially in the book of Judges later on. Here they are. They are twelve brothers born over a period of about twenty-three years through four different mothers. They are all arranged and sitting before this man who had deceitfully stolen his own blessing, and now they are awaiting their own fates as he is about to speak to them. First comes Reuben.
3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. 4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
The wonderful gift that a firstborn is, you think about that. But it’s of the first wife, who was unloved. His mother was Leah, the older sister who Jacob had been tricked into marrying. He didn’t intend to marry her. He wanted to marry Rachel, but here he married Leah. She felt unloved and when she finally gave birth, she thought it was her ticket to Jacob’s affections. So she celebrated by crying out, Reuben, which means “see, a son.” He embodied Jacob’s dignity and power like any firstborn. Typically, he should be in that position of leadership, but also of privilege where you receive as a firstborn, a double portion, twice as much of the inheritance as the other sons. But here, Jacob reveals what he knew all along from Reuben so many years before.
Genesis 35:22 While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it.

Because of that sin, there is a consequence that follows. Reuben here would lose his position as leader and his privilege of the double portion. We see the double portion actually ends up going to Joseph through Ephraim and Manasseh. These two receive that and then the leadership position falls to another true leader who softened and sacrificed himself for the good of the family; Judah. The chronicle says in 1 Chronicles chapter 5 the genealogy begins with Reuben, but there is a little explanatory note.

1 Chronicles 5:1–2 (ESV) The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son; though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief came from him, yet the birthright
belonged to Joseph),

So Judah became the leader and held that position, and the privileged birthright went to the sons of Joseph. Throughout Reuben’s lineage, we find the tribe suffering from this instability, just as Jacob foresees. There are two Reubenites named Dathan and Abiram who end up joining with the rebellion of Korah. We see that shake the family. When the tribes are about to cross into the Promised Land, you can look and see how Reuben, before they entered, joined with Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh and requested portions on the east side of the river. They were unwilling to wait for the land that God would eventually give and they settled for second best. Actually, that would bring about an opportunity for what almost was civil war. If you look at Judges 5, in the song of Deborah and Barak, there is a moment where troops are needed and Reuben is criticized for hesitating and not entering in and helping. By the time Moses blessed the tribes before he died, Reuben’s was in decline. There were less numbers and Moses actually prays

Deuteronomy 33:6 “Let Reuben live, and not die, but let his men be few.”

We can see that Jacob understands there were significant consequences to the sin and he sees here what would unfold over time. After Reuben, comes two other brothers born to Leah, Simeon and Levi. This professor calls them “partners in crime.” I have two younger brothers who early on, my dad started calling them the brute squad. They sort of left a wake of damage behind them. They always were together. Here we have Simeon and Levi, partners in crime.
5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. 6 Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
Here the father is speaking and recognizing a huge moment that had happened. Their sister, Dinah, had been wronged and ravaged. In their outrage and zeal, they sought vengeance, but their vengeance got out of control. It was impulsive and wrathful. They brought a great darkness and brought wrath and rage upon a whole city and many people. So Jacob is disassociating himself with that. “I don’t approve of that.” It wasn’t right and the zeal was misdirected. So Simeon and Levi actually wouldn’t possess their own inheritance. Simeon’s would be absorbed into Judah’s and you find that to be the case. There is a scattering. There is a disappointment here but there is also something redeemed, something special about what occurs through Levi. I think it happens because of what occurs in the book of Exodus when there is the golden calf incident. Moses comes down and the people of Israel are awfully sinning in the worship of the golden calf.
Exodus 32:26-29 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on
the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

Levi actually receives a consecrated place of blessing in the priesthood. They end up being scattered, but that scattering becomes a blessing to the entire nation as they receive cities throughout the nation and offer opportunity for people to receive the teaching and the connection to Yahweh. We see that it’s not that zeal is bad, but it must be directed in the right way. Jacob understands this zeal was misdirected, but it’s not a fate that is doomed forever. There are ways to honor God, but he sees what is going to happen and that there is going to be a scattering through these two brothers. Then fourth, we touch on Judah.
8 “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 11 Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
There is too much to unpack here, but we can see that Leah conceived again. We know Reuben has disqualified himself from being the one through whom this chosen Seed would come. In a sense, there is something going on with him and his lineage. There is something that was disturbing and distressing about Levi and Simeon and there is something obviously not deserving in Judah. He had committed gross evil against Joseph and then against others in his life, as we learned last week. Yet, through him God brought about a softness. Through him, God brought about a repentance. Through him, God decided “I’m going to choose this despised and despicable one, and I’m going to show my grace.” So through Judah and his repentance there, God chooses to prophecy through Jacob that something special will happen through Judah. He is going to receive the leadership position. He was the one who stepped up to sacrifice. Through him actually is going to come the rule. He says
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
There is more that we could unpack in terms of what that means, but he’s saying that there is going to be a peace that is going to come through this rule. There will be a peace in a Chosen One that we understand to be that through the line of Judah this chosen Messiah will come. Each of the promises that are given to these sons, and we won’t go through all of them, even though there are more themes to pick out and you can catch a glimpse of what is to come. But the whole point is that faith is not entirely blind. There is fulfillment found in each of these promises not only in the text, but in history. There is fulfillment that gives us encouragement and reminds us that God keeps His Word and He is at work in real people and real time and that we can learn from what He said and promised. You see that in each of the sons. Even though there isn’t full closure in the world, true peace is going to come by faith. But it’s not just a blind faith. It’s a faith that catches glimpses and trusts in what God says. Jacob had known that. He caught those glimpses from his own parents and he is sitting there seeing a glimpse of God keeping some of those promises before his very eyes, makes some for the sons to see in their own lives, and knows that they still will have to look ahead. He has faith that on his deathbed the final words are not “the end” in a sense, but “to be continued.” Death is not the final word. It was not for his grandfather nor for his own father and not for him. There would be glimpses given. God would continue to speak.
So here is the glimpse that is given that we can appreciate that strengthens our faith. Yet, even though we have this kind of a glimpse, the kind of peace that we know is not a superficial peace that is void of emotion, it’s not a peace that ignores the present reality. Here we look at
2. The Grief We Can Express
There is grief because of what we experience and feel. Here, we’re moving into chapter 50. There is grief and pain and a loss that is experienced by this family. Another misconception about faith is that it is incompatible with grief. We think grief and faith can’t go together, but that’s not true. Losing those you love hurts even if you have faith and believe. Just because there isn’t complete closure in this life, it doesn’t mean God hasn’t given us healthy ways to process and experience pain in faith. One of the ways that we deal with this loss is through expressing our grief to God, our deep sorrow and sadness even as we lose those we love.
There are heard words to say in English, but one of the hardest words when you really think about it, is goodbye. There is a time when you say it for the last time. We do sometimes get that opportunity, but sometimes we don’t. We have families in our own church family who did not get to say goodbye. There are mothers and fathers who did not get to say goodbye to their own children. There is a grief that God understands. Sometimes people don’t get to say goodbye in that emotional sense, even afterwards, through opportunities that don’t come about. But even when we do, even when there is a great opportunity, even when you have those moments, there are still ways that complete closure eludes us. Expressing grief is a very biblical, God-given concept. Right here, we can see some of the elements that are given in that pain. The first is simply that healthy grief can be emotional.
1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him.
It’s emotional and it’s respectful. You see that there is a dignity shown.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.
There is effort involved.
3 Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
Then we see the wishes are honored.
4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’” 6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
There is a respect given. It’s emotional, respectful, and even impactful.
7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan.
Even the people of Canaan recognized this is a significant thing. There is something significant about this kind of an occasion. Funerals can be an incredibly impactful time. Grief can be an incredibly important tool to show people what real faith looks like in a broken world. This is emotional, respectful, impactful and yet, hopeful.
12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, 13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
They are hopeful as they bury him. He had hope in this land. He had hope in the promise of God. We’ll trust in God that He is going to do what He said. Then in a sense, there is also just a brief encouragement here that it is temporal.
14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
They go back. This time of mourning, which was significant and emotional and deep, did come to an end on that occasion. It didn’t mean that the grief wasn’t deep and painful for the rest of his life. It didn’t mean that there weren’t new ways that he was experiencing and recognizing and learning about how much it hurt and what he had lost. But there was a significant moment of emotional mourning and grief that he recognized. Yet, there was a rightness to saying, “I do have to move forward with what God has.” It’s not without pain and not to forget, but to continue living. In this way, in a world without full closure, true peace only comes through faith. But faith and grief are not incompatible. They go together. There is a hurt that goes with losing those you love and this life is going to be marked by pain with loss. That doesn’t mean that we have to avoid processing that pain or expressing that grief. There are so many psalms of grief. There are songs and prayers written to express the pain of God’s people.
Ecclesiastes 3:1–2 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die;

Ecclesiastes 3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Even in the seasons of grief, faith and grief are not incompatible. They’re actually going to deepen and expose our need to trust in a God who knows what we don’t. In fact, wisdom would say
Ecclesiastes 7:1–3 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

There is a healing power to grief. Now, there is a worldly grief over things that God wants us to release. It’s a grief that is not healthy. You see that in Samuel’s grieving God’s rejection of Saul. He is not liking where God is taking things. There is a grief, it seems like, when David loses his rebellious son, that seems to hurt other people. He is not recognizing what God is really doing and what is around him. But there is a grief that is right and healthy. It seems to be what is happening here. It’s a grief that is maybe not unlike the song that David composes after the death of his best friend, Jonathan. He cries out, “How the mighty have fallen.” Grief and faith are not incompatible. It’s just that we grieve with faith. We grieve upward. It is perhaps nowhere more notable than with Jesus and Lazarus. Jesus comes and His friend has died. There He is with these two women that He loves. They’re crying and Jesus is able to say

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

It’s the word “faith.” Do you trust?

John 11:27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Mary recognizes and believes everything He has taught as well. Yet, both of these women, even as they come and Jesus sees their grief, even though He knows Lazarus is going to be awakened even temporarily in just a moment, He still is moved deeply and He weeps. Grief and faith are not incompatible. In fact, they go together because Jesus Himself was a man who Isaiah would say

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

He knows grief really well.

Isaiah 53:3 …and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Here’s how He relates to grief.

Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

We can see the grief even of His own followers at His death in their care for His body. It’s good, but it’s not the end because He rose again. Because of that, Jesus is the one who can both hold our tears in the bottle and yet wipe them away with His hands. He understands and comforts. Laments are part of our story, but they’re not the ending. I think of my mom often on the phone. When we call, she doesn’t like to say goodbye. She usually says “bye for now.” It reminds us of what it looks like to have faith. We grieve upward and we know this isn’t the end.

To those who have recently lost loved ones in the church family, your church family loves you. You have freedom and room to grieve and we are going to pray for you. Grieve upward in faith. Even as you sing with tears, it encourages us, as Isaac was sharing earlier. Grief and faith are not incompatible. Faith is not blind, but that’s not to say that it’s easy. Faith is not easy. Faith means a trust that is hard.

3. The Goodness We Can Trust

If we want faith in the midst of a world that lacks that full closure, we need to be able to trust God’s goodness, His plan. Trust His provision. We see that happening here in chapter 50 in their return from this funeral. Funerals often do bring up family issues, don’t they? They bring up things from the past, conversations. They unsettle things. That’s exactly what happens here. There is a goodness here that the brothers struggle to trust. You see it with the brothers’ natural fear.
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.”
The father’s death really brings them right back to that moment of discovery, the moment of guilt, the moment of what they had done. They think, “Oh no! We might be in trouble.” So they kind of go back to their old way.
16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.”
It’s almost like they’re worried that they don’t have peace. They thought they had a truce. They’re struggling to trust if it’s really good. Their guilt is heavy and present. That’s a common struggle in life and for many in their walk with God. I know it is a significant one for me. Do I have peace with God or just a truce? Am I waiting for the hammer to drop? They’re wondering. It’s a pretty natural reaction of fear. Joseph’s response to them is a grief of his own. You’d think after these seventy days of weeping and mourning, they wouldn’t have any tears left, but here he is.
Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
He’s sad and the brothers don’t quite know how to take these tears.
18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
They’re ready to work to regain his trust or earn his forgiveness or just try to be safe. They kind of bring themselves back to the consequence of being servants at the moment of their discovery. You can see the way he handles this fear in his brothers. It’s the same way that he had to learn to deal with his own challenges with trusting God’s goodness.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
He puts things in perspective and he is able to release things to God. He is not a man of vengeance, here. This wasn’t a truce. This was a peace. He offers true forgiveness and release from the natural fear and the grief. He brings a comfort.
21 So do not fear;
This is a phrase that God says so often to us.
I will provide for you and your little ones.”
It’s the same thought that Judah had when he spoke to his father and said, “We have to go. We have to provide because we have to care for the little ones.” Both of them have the sense of caring for these defenseless little ones, the ones who would be in the lineage and through whom the Seed would come. The whole promise rests on the future of these little ones.
Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
It was the very thing that they couldn’t bring themselves to do when he had lived at home with them so many years ago. They couldn’t speak a kind word, not a Shalom, which is the greeting, the word for peace. Here he is and he has it for them. He speaks kindly. We’re surprised, really the second time, because the first shock was that God could soften a sinner like Judah to repentantly sacrifice himself for the good of the family, that God could change him. But the second shock here is when we see that not only can God soften a sinner, but here, God softens a sufferer like Joseph to forgive those who had so deeply wronged him. There is a peace with these brothers after such sin and brokenness. There is a peace and a care and a way that God is going to carry forward this promise. This is a family that had been so under attack by the serpent that there had been brothers like Cain and Abel where there had been murder. Satan wants them to murder and destroy and there is conflict.
Here, God brings forgiveness and peace in a way unimaginable. If you think that is easy, you have not lived long enough. This is a miracle. God is softening sinners and sufferers in a way that restores relationship. The way that He brings that kind of peace about is anything but easy. He accomplishes it through a sacrifice of His own, through the righteous sacrifice of Christ in our place. This is the ultimate picture of God’s goodness and kindness. It’s a picture that is calling us to repentance, Paul would say in Romans 2:4. God is speaking to us in Isaiah 40.
Isaiah 40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
He is speaking with a grace that is overwhelming, choosing people, even Jews like Paul, who is the ultimate example of mercy as a sinner, and saying that God can forgive. There is room for someone like Judah in God’s family. There is room for someone like me. If God can help Joseph to release and forgive, maybe God is kind to forgive and release in a similar way. We see Jesus as both the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate forgiver who there on the cross bearing our sins, was able to say “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This is the God who is able to say, “Don’t fear. Come and trust my goodness.” Do you trust the goodness and the kindness of God? This is something that can bring peace in a world that is so broken. Faith is not incompatible with grief. It’s not blind and it’s not easy. It also takes action. We’ll just end here with
4. The Guarantee We Can Claim
You see Joseph claiming this guarantee the same that his father had claimed, where he recognized God promised this land. He promised this life and I know it’s going to come.
I don’t know if you get coupons. We got a few coupons for a pizza place some time ago. We went to the pizza place. Sometimes you get a little embarrassed. Is this going to actually work? I pulled it out and all of a sudden I discovered what was on the fine print, like so many coupons per person, per table, per hour, per meeting, per gathering. (Laughter!) I just sort of put it back in my pocket. Is this company going to come through on their guarantee? Are they really going to follow through on the promise that they offer? Sometimes we get like that with God. There are all these different promises and all these different things that we have. We think, yes, but can I really take that to the bank? Am I really going to bring it out and say, “God, you promised this”? Am I really going to claim the guarantees that He offers? Here is Joseph. He has learned in life that God always is good on His promises. He claims those guarantees with faith.
22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph’s own.
He trusts that there is going to be fulfillment.
24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
We’re told in
Hebrews 11:22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
He has such strong faith and claims in the guarantees that he’s like, take care of my bones. He’s going forward. He claimed that guarantee.
26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
We began the book in a garden home and we end in a coffin in a foreign land. It’s kind of a shocking story! Is there really hope? Is there really goodness? Joseph ends with a faith that isn’t passive. It’s active. It’s not easy. It’s not incompatible with grief, but it isn’t blind. It claims what God has done. If you read Hebrews chapter 11 about faith, you realize that all of these people are commended through faith and they don’t receive what is promised in this broken world. The promise is unbroken, yet they didn’t receive it. They died. But that’s what faith is. The promise is yet ahead. This is who the people of God are. They are people who trust and believe that God will keep his life just as Jesus said. They believe in Him that He is the resurrection and the life and that this life is not the end. There is new life ahead, life marked by forgiveness and resurrection, secured by Jesus. That’s the guarantee that we too claim by faith. It’s the resurrection that He offers. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Have you claimed that guarantee? Do you trust that promise? It’s not have you heard the promise or listened to it, but have you exercised it? Do you actually believe by faith? What is your peace like? Whatever that trial that is in your mind, the thing that is really stressing you and that lies ahead just on the other side of this afternoon, do you have peace there? If you have Jesus, you do. That’s in fact, the only way that you can know true peace.
I think we all understand the challenge of embracing that phrase, “to be continued.” But praise God that He doesn’t just finish us off with sort of that blunt page that says “the end.” There are some romantics who want God’s Book or even our own stories to end with that happily ever after. In a sense, they actually will. It’s just a moment that is to come. The story is not yet over because there is work to do. There is a Gospel to share. There is good news to spread. There are sinners in need of rescue. So yes, we’re living in an imperfect world with incomplete closure and in a life where the best ending that we can have in many situations feels like “to be continued.” But it’s worth remembering that the written conclusion to God’s Book is more than that. Perhaps it’s something a little like what Joseph might have been thinking as he prepared to be closed into that coffin. There is a promise that we used to hear on those programs years ago. After these messages, we’ll be right back.
Revelation 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”